FILM REVIEW; Choreographer Who Demands and Receives Much

The performance of ''Esplanade'' that opens the Academy Award-nominated documentary ''Dancemaker,'' about the Paul Taylor Dance Company and its celebrated choreographer, is filmed from the wings of the stage. There the dancers can be seen preparing to spring into action, and they can be heard breathing heavily afterward, moaning in relief. That signals the mostly blisters-and-all approach of this vivid group portrait, which extends beyond Mr. Taylor's creative processes to offer an overview of lives utterly devoted to dance. Opening today at the Film Forum, it's a must for anyone who reveres modern dance with even an iota of the passion seen onscreen.

The hard-working performers seen here are united by the physical kinship of shared experience, and by their consensus that working with Mr. Taylor amounts to a near-religious experience. And as depicted here, Mr. Taylor is not one to disagree with that assessment. Soft-voiced yet coyly, discreetly imperious, he is seen exerting absolute control over dancers who are thrilled to be part of his world. ''Sometimes I think if I asked them to jump out the window they actually would,'' he muses, and he seems to be halfway enjoying that thought.

Watching how Mr. Taylor creates a new piece with his troupe (the scorching, tango-derived ''Piazzolla Caldera'') is the film's central focus. And it's reason enough to explain the dancers' reverence. The camera observes what is necessarily the collaborative way in which Mr. Taylor's work takes shape. Discussing their eagerness to please Mr. Taylor and live up to his expectations, the dancers try to act out his suggestions and win his favor. ''I have to see something in front of me before I know if it's what I want or not,'' he remarks. ''As a result, we do a lot of fooling around and trying things.'' The film incisively illustrates why this is by no means as nonchalant as it sounds.

Directed by Matthew Diamond, ''Dancemaker'' observes the creation of ''Piazzolla Caldera'' from start to finish, moving from rehearsal studio to New York's City Center with a side trip to India along the way. Though it branches out into talk about financial pressures on the troupe and allusions to Mr. Taylor's personal history, much of the film has the deliberately narrow focus of an authorized version. Mr. Diamond, who has been dancer, choreographer and a director on television series including ''Golden Girls'' and ''Designing Women,'' is now in charge of film and video projects for Mr. Taylor. And he does work in a fair amount of hagiography. (''I think often of my parents, how they took care of me,'' says Ross Kramberg, the company's executive director. ''And I turn it around and I think, 'How can I take care of Paul in that way as well?' '')

Otherwise, the format alternates interviews with dancers, chats with Mr. Taylor and graceful, eloquent outbursts of dance. Among the pieces seen at least in part here are the startling ''Cloven Kingdom'' and ''Aureole,'' with Mr. Taylor himself seen dancing the latter in 1962. He is movingly seen watching the same dance performed by Patrick Corban, one of the current troupe members who speaks most emotionally and touchingly about Mr. Taylor's influence.

In the end, ''Dancemaker'' is a reminder of just how autocratic any artist must be in realizing his vision. ''I just didn't want to work with her,'' he remarks coolly about a dancer he has dismissed. ''It just wasn't . . . interesting.'' The flip side of the triumphs seen onstage is this absolute ruthlessness, and Mr. Diamond succeeds in capturing both.

DANCEMAKER

Directed by Matthew Diamond; director of photography, Tom Hurwitz; edited by Pam Wise; produced by Mr. Diamond and Jerry Kupfer; released by Artistic License. At the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, South Village. Running time: 98 minutes. This film is not rated.